Nicolas Vimont-Vicary has always been a sailor. He lost his vision 25 years ago and participated in his first blind sailing competition in Weymouth, UK in 1997. In 2001, he was a member of the first crew to sail a Sonar in France.

 

Herve Larhant was not a sailor before he lost his leg, but started sailing with Vimont-Vicary in 2002. The pair has sailed with many skippers and had mixed results, but since the recruited Bruno Jourdren “something is changing,” said Larhant.

 

After trying to lure Jourdren to their team for years, they finally had their wish come true when Jourdren took the helm of their Sonar at the 2007 IFDS World Championships in Rochester, New York. Since the, the French Sonar team has had a string of second place finishes.

 

They were second at two Paralympic indicator regattas – US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR and 2^nd at the Paralympic Test Event in Qingdao in May.

 

What is so different about Jourdren? He is a professional skipper. His one paralyzed arm has not slowed him down a bit. A great sailor, 47-year old Jourdren has completed two 4,300-mile Jacques Vabre transatlantic double-handed races.

 

Jourdren has won the French National Championships in the Melges 24 and plans to compete in the next Melges 24 World Championships.

 

Jourdren arrived in Qingdao as quickly as he could after winning the19-boat, double-handed 1,000 Mile Race from Brittany to Spain and back, last week.

 

When asked why he is sailing in the Paralympics, Jourdren said, “It is a new game and a new experience.”

 

Jourdren has one goal in Qingdao. It is to win a Gold Medal in the Sonar.

 

 

Jourdren arrived in Qingdao after the rest of the team. While the team rigged the boat, Jourdren did his best to recover from the back to back ocean race and the jet lag. Most days of the 2008 Paralympic Sailing Regatta, the French team topped the leaderboard. However, they did sail some mid-fleet races. Their demise was in the final race of the 11-race series when they ripped their jib. While they could discard the DNF, it meant that they had to keep one of those mid-fleet scores, just enough to drop them from the Gold back into their exceptional, yet usual second place finish. For that they won the Silver, something that would not have happened had Vimont-Vicary and Larhant not been so persistent over the years and the three Frenchmen not come together as a team.